Many garments are finished, transported, distributed and sold while mounted upon a hanger. Management of these hangers, particularly at the store distribution center and garment sales point is time consuming, distracting, and often creates a difficult storage problem. The typical triangular-shaped hanger, including a top hook, is simply an awkward article to handle. In quantity, the hangers tend to become entangled, and in any case, are difficult to stack in any organized manner. Many stores handle a variety of shapes and sizes, further adding to the inconvenience.
A number of hanger racks have been developed to organize and store hangers. Most of the devices contemplate handling the hangers while holding a garment. Very few of the known devices are suitable for managing large quantities of empty hangers. A conventional design includes a hanger bar that receives the hanger hook and a keeper or retainer bar that bears upon and holds the hanger onto the hanger bar. Various means are provided to fasten the keeper bar to the hanger bar and latch it into securing contact with the hangers on the bar.
A key feature of hanger storage devices relates to the latching means and how they cooperate to allow access to the hanger bar for loading/unloading. For example, Cameron in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,868,906, and 4,348,145 describes a hanger-retaining strip from which a pair of latches project, received by openings in a hanger bar. The retainer strip may be latched in either an elevated position allowing access to the hanger bar for loading or a position where the strip bears on the hanger bar to secure the hangers in place. The hanger bar is provided with end means and mounted such that it pivots about its axis. Thus, when the retainer strip is elevated into the access position, gravity causes the over-balanced hanger bar to rotate whereby the retainer strip falls into a position below the hanger bar, allowing free access to the bar for loading. Such a mechanism requires that the hanger bar ends always be free for rotation, rendering the system somewhat unstable overall. Opening the latching mechanism thus generally requires that the operator use both hands.
GB No. 2,033,741 and GB No. 2,044,094 both describe a retainer bar that is fixed in spaced parallel alignement adjacent the hanger bar. The hanger bar ends are secured to, for example, the walls of the transporting vehicle, by means of a pair of sockets, one of which includes a pin for initially fixing the hanger bar with the retainer bar uppermost to allow loading. The bar is then unpinned, rotated axially until the rotating retainer bar bears against the hanger hook thus securing the hangers on the hanger bar.
Roscicki in U.S. Pat. No. 3,317,055, describes a hanger organizer having a channel-shaped retaining bar that is secured to the hanger bar by means of a single stud and a wing nut. A spring element between the two bars biases the retaining bar in a releasing position. Tightening the wing nut overcomes the spring means and urges the channel edge portions into securing contact with the hangers on the organizer. The two ends of the organizer are unsupported, rendering the organizer somewhat unstable for loading and unloading.
Several of the garment handling devices include design aspects similar to the hanger organizers, but are principally concerned with garment-related problems such as securing garments from theft. For example, Parillo, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,610,423 and Shapiro et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,385, employ key-locked retainer bars that include means for biasing the retainer bar in a raised position when unlocked. These devices are rather large and heavy and the latching system is not suitable for ready access where the emphasis is upon managing large numbers of hangers rather than garments.